ARTICLES ABOUT GEORGE STRAIT BY DATE - PAGE 3

The Hooters come home to the Tower Theater tonight and tomorrow to end almost a year touring behind their second Columbia album, One Way Home. They have already incorporated some new material into their set, and plan to try out a few more pieces for the home-town fans. These are expected to be the Hooters' last performances before they go into the studio this summer to prepare an album for release late in the year. Beru Revue opens the show tonight, with Bricklin warming up tomorrow night's crowd.

With nearly two dozen No. 1 hits in his career, George Strait is one of the most popular singers in country music. Apparently, his voice is not all some of his fans like about him. Strait recently topped a call-in poll by a Los Angeles radio station asking listeners to name "the sexiest man in country music. " He led KZLA's week-long poll not just once but every day. Strait's 11th album, If You Ain't Lovin' You Ain't Livin', was released last month by MCA Records. All of his previous LPs - except for his 1986 Christmas album - have gone platinum (selling at least one million copies)

George Strait, named Billboard magazine's "overall country artist" of 1987, wound up the year with a long string of accomplishments. His LPs Ocean Front Property and Greatest Hits Volume I both were certified platinum (that is, million-selling). In fact, Ocean Front Property debuted in the country-album-hit chart's No. 1 position. Also in 1987, Strait finished an album scheduled to be released in February, and he filmed George Strait Live, a 53-minute concert video. In addition, last year was Strait's best-ever on the road.

Although the title song of George Strait's new album Ocean Front Property (MCA ) is a cutesy novelty tune, the rest of the record is just about the strongest music Strait has committed to vinyl. From the beguilingly breezy western swing of "You Can't Buy Your Way Out of the Blues" to the rousing version of "All My Ex's Live in Texas," Strait sings with a disarming insouciance that recalls the early Merle Haggard. STEVE EARLE Early Tracks (Epic ): This one was so predictable that the singer himself predicted it: Once Guitar Town, Earle's 1986 album on MCA, became a hit, he speculated that Epic would rush to issue these previously unreleased 1983 songs, "probably with some title like Early Earle.

Anybody wondering why George Strait is country music's reigning male vocalist of the year for the second consecutive year should look to Strait's home state of Texas. In terms of popularity, Strait owns it. Not only is Strait's Feb. 25 show at the Houston Astrodome a sellout, it was a sellout within 24 hours after tickets went on sale Jan. 6 - and there were 48,000 of them. The fastest previous Astrodome sellout was by Dolly Parton and took four days. A comparatively paltry Strait crowd of 16,500 gathered in the Reunion Arena in Dallas on New Year's Eve to see a show by Strait and John Conlee that opened a road trip with dates in Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

George Strait, two-time Country Music Association male vocalist of the year, is scheduled to perform Jan. 26 on the nationally televised American Music Awards (8 p.m. on Channel 6) and also will soon release an album, Ocean Front Property. The new album will feature work by a couple of songwriters whose previous efforts have done well for Strait. Dean Dillon, who wrote Strait's initial hit, "Unwound," has written three of the new album's songs: "Without You Here," "I'm All Behind You Now" and the title cut. Strait's guitar player, David Anthony, who co-wrote "Something Special," comes back with "Someone's Walkin' Around Upstairs.

Larry Gatlin has gotten into one of the most exclusive groups in celebritydom. The famous Stage Deli on New York's Seventh Avenue has made him the namesake of No. 23 of its 28 sandwiches named for celebrities. That puts him on the same menu page with such people as Liz Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Bill Cosby, Muhammad Ali and Joe DiMaggio. "This is definitely a career high," Gatlin says. "To be listed as the highest-priced sandwich among all these big hitters is a thrill for a kid from East Texas.

June 27, 1986 | By W. Speers, Inquirer Staff Writer (Contributing to this article were the Associated Press, United Press International and the Boston Globe.)

The 13-year-old daughter of country singer George Strait was killed in a car accident late Wednesday, and the driver was charged yesterday with criminally negligent homicide. A Texas public-safety spokesman said Jennifer Strait was riding with two teenage male friends in a car driven by William Allen McDonald, 16, on a rural road outside San Marcos when the car failed to negotiate a curve, skidded sideways, rolled over and landed on its top in a ditch. The spokesman said that "excessive speed" contributed to the accident.